Trump’s Stargate Project Ignites a War of Words Among Tech Billionaires

American billionaire Elon Musk has been stirring up controversy with his fiery statements that target everyone, starting with economics and moving on to politics. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX criticized the Stargate project recently announced by US President Donald Trump, and Musk said that tech giants OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank do not have enough money to fulfill their prominent pledge to invest $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

Musk made this comment just hours after President Donald Trump unveiled the massive project at the White House on his first full day in office.

Musk said in his comment, “They don’t really have the money,” Musk wrote in response to OpenAI’s post on his social media platform X about the new project called the Stargate project.

Musk added in a later post: “SoftBank got less than $10 billion. I know this from a reliable source.” Musk is Trump’s biggest financial backer so far in the 2024 election, and is currently leading a major effort to improve the efficiency of the White House government.

For his part, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded directly to Musk, writing on the platform “X”: “I truly respect your achievements and believe you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time. But in a subsequent post, Altman wrote that Musk’s claim about SoftBank’s liquidity was “wrong, as you surely know.”

He added: “I realize that what is good for the country is not always what is best for your companies, but in your new role, I hope you will put the ‘American flag’ first.”

A person familiar with the AI ​​project, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Musk’s post about SoftBank was “far from objective,” and added that there was “no doubt” that the tense relationship between Musk and Altman was the catalyst for his posts about Stargate. Musk’s comments downplayed Trump’s announcement Tuesday afternoon that Stargate would “invest at least $500 billion” and create “over 100,000 American jobs almost immediately.” Trump had said: “I think it’s going to be something very special. It’s going to lead to something that could be the biggest ever.” The joint venture, known as Stargate, is led by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and global technology investment group SoftBank, with SoftBank taking financial responsibility and OpenAI operating.